Business Week on taxing meat

Business Week has a couple of complimentary items. The first is an article recommending a tax on meat, which I am a little late sending out but wanted to make sure to share. Just yesterday, however, April 11, the Business Week website posted an interview with Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown that is terrific viewing.

The article, by Charles Kenny, is titled, “The Economic Case for Taxing Meat.”

It opens:
“As tax season ramps up, we’re bound to hear proposals aimed at making the revenue system simpler and more efficient. A perennial is the ‘sin tax.’ Rather than tax earnings—when we really want people to earn money—why not tax things we don’t want people to do? Add duties to cigarettes, alcohol, and carbon dioxide to slow people’s smoking, drinking, and polluting, and you’ll do them and the world a favor while raising revenue for schools, hospitals, and roads. But why stop there? It’s time to add one more sin to the list of habits that should be taxed: excessive meat consumption.”

Kenny cites studies showing that meat eaters are more likely than vegetarians to be obese, a drain on the health care system.

Ironically, however, he notes that meat consumption impacts widespread human malnutrition as “livestock production occupies 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.” He notes, “Some of that land could be used instead to cultivate crops for human consumption.”

Kenny writes, “Domesticated animals have been the incubators of many of the world’s greatest killer diseases,” and reports, “We’ve added to that risk by regularly feeding factory animals antibiotics. Eighty percent of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are used on animals. This widespread use has been linked to the rapid emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which kills 18,000 people a year in the U.S.”

He also discusses the meat industry’s effect on climate change and on the oceans, as fish are fed to factory farmed animals.

Then he reminds us:
“Yet despite all the reasons for curbing meat consumption, livestock farmers got nearly a third of a billion dollars in subsidies in 2011 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

As more companies switch to integrated reporting linking sustainability actions with financial filings, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has launched a free, online platform to help businesses navigate the increase in reporting requirements.

The formation of a movement that champions the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a similar fashion to how the RE100 drives commitment to renewable energy is just one of the potential solutions being explored by business leaders to move away from a "business as usual" approach to sustainability.

All basmati rice sold under the world's largest rice brand will be sourced under a sustainability platform to address human rights issues in supply chains and improve the environmental impact of farming practices.

Trump administration reversed ban in August despite environmental protestActivists say plastic is biggest threat to environment after climate changeA ban on bottled water in 23 national parks prevented up to 2m plastic bottles from being used and discarded every year, a US national park service study found. That is equivalent to up to 326 barrels of oil wort […]

National Weather Service says: ‘This is an extremely dangerous situation’Maria knocked out island’s power and several rivers hit record flood levelsOfficials are rushing to evacuate tens of thousands of people from their homes in western Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria inflicted structural damage on a dam and unleashed “extremely dangerous” flash floods.So […]

Worst storm to hit Puerto Rico in 80 years felled trees and smashed buildingsGovernor’s spokesman describes scene of ‘total devastation’After hours of hurricane-force winds and torrential rain, Puerto Ricans emerged from shelters on Thursday morning to find that their island was still under threat from landslides, flash floods and crippled water and electric […]

Amanda Holpuch in New York, Norbert Figueroa in San Juan and Carmen Fishwick in London

Michael Dourson, president’s nominee for EPA position, founded consultancy in which he was paid to criticize studies questioning safety of clients’ productsDonald Trump’s nominee to oversee chemical safety at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faces questions over his history as a close ally to the chemical industry and suitability to be its chief reg […]

Mark Hofberg Sep 26 2017 The United States Congress may seem to be a bit of a quagmire right now, but anti-wildlife legislators are moving some very dangerous bills alarmingly close to passage. read more

Erika Flores Sep 25 2017 As soon as we had heard of the terrible earthquake in Mexico City, our team in Playa del Carmen knew we had to respond. Together with our partner Coco’s Animal Welfare, we assembled a team of veterinarians to rescue and treat animals injured in the quake. Arrival read more […]

Open publishing was disabled on this site in mid-July 2016 as there was a very low volume of original grass roots news reports from activists being posted and the collective running the site was dwindling as people were working on other things.

LESS THAN thirty brazen little crybabies escaped the clutches of mummy and daddy to parked their prams in Hyde Park for their annual Teddybears Trump Picnic, whilst policemen in riot gear stood guard for the nasty big bogeymen from the UAF, who had threatened to turn up and spoil the fun of the little Angels and cherubs of the EDL's Hitler Pre-School Di […]

It was an American-made helicopter abusing the name of a First Nations tribe which penetrated Syrian territory coming from Golan late June, in bright daylight approached a nameless Czech-made ambulance car, and fired a B7EV type air-to-ground missile killing a patient plus other inmates en route to a civilian hospital. One of many, too many casualties in a f […]

Visitors to West Bay, near Bridport, will see up to 60 metres of temporary coastal defence barriers deployed in East Beach car park in preparation for any future tidal incidents. The barriers – one of 4 types used by the Environment Agency – are large, self-supporting, recyclable containers filled with aggregate. They are covered with an impenetrable membran […]

Somerset’s newest flood alleviation scheme will be officially opened by the chair of the Environment Agency next week. The chance of flooding has been cut for 200 homes in Cannington thanks to a jointly funded £4.5 million scheme which will be opened by chair Emma Howard Boyd on Wednesday 27 September. This is a result of a partnership with the Environment A […]

A man was caught out after GPS data was seized from the rental van he had used to illegally dump waste and he has now been sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates Court. Kirk McRoberts, of Waterloo Promenade in Nottingham, pleaded guilty on Tuesday 19 September and was fined £900. He was also ordered to contribute £500 towards the cost of prosecution and had to […]

Proposals for the second phase of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme are going on show this month to communities upstream of the city centre. A series of drop in events are being held in Kirkstall, Horsforth, Rodley and Apperley Bridge areas of Leeds, giving residents the opportunity to view options to reduce the risk of flooding to their homes and businesse […]